Disastrous For The Environment

We need to move to renewable energy immediately and quit allowing people, like the governor, who are tied to the oil and coal companies to control our destiny. We as citizens must immediately demand this issue be reversed at the state level and as a nation demand a move to renewable energy. It is time for ACTION or we will not have a planet that will support our lives as we know it today. There is global warming, if you do not believe, then just look outside. This issue was buried in a 1200 page budget bill.
The issue of set backs was just an opportunity for him to move on his agenda, when the issue should have and could have been debated immediately. This issue of renewable energy should not be debated on the basis of $$ and jobs because if we do not move towards renewable energy sources we will eventually not a an economy that will support any of us. By the way, June 2014 was the hottest June on record.
Further, utilizing 22% of renewable energy by the year 2025. We should not be satisfied with that goal, but at at least be able to match Germany’s current 74%. Germany has a populatiion density of 598 people per square mile and the U.S. has 79 per square mile. Germany has learned to live with the technologies of renewable energy and realize the need for it – so let’s quit stalling the inevitable.

Ohio governor signs bill freezing renewable-energy standards

Ohio governor was heavily lobbied by state Chamber of Commerce, utilities and conservative activists. (Gary Landers/AP)
BY STEVEN MUFSON AND TOM HAMBURGER June 13
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) dashed the hopes of environmentalists, leading manufacturers and renewable-energy businesses Friday and signed a bill shelving requirements for utilities to ramp up the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Ohio has been a battleground over whether to roll back 2008 legislation requiring the state to acquire 12.5 percent of its energy portfolio from renewables and to reduce energy consumption by 22 percent by 2025.

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the utility First Energy and the American Legislative Exchange Council pushed to roll back the standards. On the other side, 51 manufacturers, including Owens-Corning, Whirlpool, Honeywell and Honda, signed a letter urging Kasich to let the requirements stand.

Supporters of the standards hoped that Kasich — who has praised the Ohio jobs generated by the renewable-energy industry and backed tough regulations on fracking chemicals and gas leaks — would veto the state legislature’s bill freezing and reevaluating the standards. Instead, he signed it in private; as of early evening, he had issue

d no statement.

Kasich is running for reelection this year.

“In the past we’ve been very pleased with our ability to work with the governor and with his leadership on natural gas regulations,” said Cheryl Roberto, associate vice president for clean energy at the Environmental Defense Fund. “So we are very disappointed because we can’t see the bill as anything but a step backwards.”

EDF said that the legislation has created 25,000 jobs in the renewable industry and through energy efficiency has saved Ohio ratepayers $1 billion.

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